HP Redundant hot plug fan kit

Advantages: High Density, excellent availabilty
Disadvantages: Default SmartArray5i does not have option to add battery cache

...We have 12 of these machines, all with dual 2.8Ghz Xeons. The thing I like most about them is that almost everything is hot-plug. From the drives, to the fans, power supplies to the pci cards. Opening the top cover leads to an incredibly well laid out system. PCI cards can be installed and de-installed (assuming the OS supports it) while the system is up and running. I'd highly recommend you invest in the redundant fan option kit. If you're installing another processor then you really need to have this. On a downside, the only thing that springs to mind is there is no front USB port available. With floppy discs disapppearing these days, it would have been nice. HP seem to have realised this and on the G4 servers there is now a front USB, and no floppy drive. Managability wise these servers are fantastic. We went from using... Read review

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Advantages: Small and Cheap
Disadvantages: Cabling can be a bit of a nightmare

...redundancy added to it with additional power supply and hot plug fans being added all reducing potential down time. ********** Manageability************* HP have a device called the Integrated Lights-Out Standard, this is a device that is integrated into the server and allows you to power off and restart the server as if you were stood in front of it, you can also watch and interact with the boot sequence, load virtual CD's and Floppy disks into the server from anywhere. With the purchase of an additional licence the ILO can provide keyboard and mouse interaction when the operating system has loaded, so you can be truely stood at the server keyboard from 1000's of miles away. One Observation I have of the ILO is that it can be slow for the screen to react so it is really for when all other tools such as terminal services have failed on you... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Takes 6 disks in a 2U package
Disadvantages: Not a great deal

...for everything at my company, we always have spares kicking around for the odd application that we have to deploy yesterday. ********** Summary************* This model of server has a good level of redundancy available if you go for the extra fans and power supply, but one of the best features is that it has two hot plug slots, which for this class is excellent. If you want to reduce the workload on your support staff then the HP Proliant server are the way to go, you will pay a premium compared to other vendors, but this additional cost is where you pay for all the tools and utilities that are bundled or available on the web.... Read review

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